1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to surgical aids and more particularly to a pillow for supporting a patients shoulders and arms during surgery.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The medical profession has developed and introduced many innovations in patient care over the years. Many illnesses and injuries affect internal organs or the skeletal-muscular system which are not readily treatable from outside the human body. Since the nineteenth century, surgery techniques have increasingly advanced to become the primary procedural means for treating many internal conditions of patients. Specialized surgical procedures have been developed which are often the only method of patient treatment for certain internal conditions caused by serious illness or injuries. Consequently, the medical profession conducts thousands of surgeries every day of the year in operating rooms across the United States and abroad to correct a wide variety of conditions.
Prior to and throughout surgery, an anesthesiologist administers intravenous drugs or gases to the patient to induce a state of unconsciousness. During normal sleep, a person's level of consciousness is such that the person will continue to react to outside stimuli. In response to those stimuli, the brain sends reflexive signals to the body to reposition itself to prevent injury that may result from maintaining a single position for a prolonged period of time. Since the very nature of surgery is an invasive one, the patient's central nervous system would reflexively react to the surgical invasion. Although anesthesia may be compared to sleep, anesthesia requires a deeper level of unconsciousness than sleep to suppress those natural reflexes. Some surgeries can be very lengthy, and throughout surgery, the patient is maintained in a single position. Staying in this non-reflexive, unconscious state for extended periods of time is not normally experienced during regular sleep and can be problematic to the patient's well being. Medical professionals attending to the patient during surgery must be aware of potential injuries, such as nerve damage, that can result from maintaining a patient in a single position for any extended time period and must take appropriate precautions to prevent such injuries.
The vast majority of surgeries are conducted with the patient lying face up on an operating table, sometimes with the arms outstretched and secured to arm boards attached to the operating table. Arm boards permit the surgical team to maintain ready access to one or both of the patient's arms for the purpose of administering medications, for attaching various physiological monitoring equipment and other medical devices, or for conveniently isolating the patient's arms during surgery. However, not all surgeries are performed with the patient in a face-up, or even a face-down position. Some surgeries by necessity require the patient to be placed in a lateral or semi-lateral position wherein the patient is lying on his or her side.
When a patient is maintained in a lateral or semi-lateral position during surgery, both of the patient's arms extend to the same side of the operating table, with one arm vertically positioned above the other arm. In the lateral position, one of the patient's shoulders is substantially raised above the level of the other which, without external means of support, generally results in the associated arm extending downwardly across the patient's chest. This position can result in the pinching of the brachial plexus nerve located in the underarm area at the juncture of the arm to the body. Prolonged pinching of the brachial plexus nerve can cause temporary or, in some cases, permanent damage to the nerve with the result being a loss of feeling and function to the patient's arm. To prevent such damage when the patient is maintained in a lateral position for surgery, the patient's top arm should extend from the shoulder in a manner substantially perpendicular to the plane of the patient's trunk, parallel to and above the patient's bottom arm. However, most operating tables are constructed to allow attachment of arm boards that extend from either or both sides of the operating table. An arm board is useful to support a patient's outstretched arm at the same level as the operating table. Thus, for patients in a lateral position, their bottom arm is readily supported by an arm board; however, there is no corresponding support for the patient's top shoulder and arm.
Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism to comfortably and safely support a patient's top arm on an operating table when the patient is placed in a lateral position.